When Mario hits it, the cube flies back and lands in a similar fashion to a Dice Block. Whatever image is face up determines what Mario will earn.

If a 1-Up Mushroom is shown, Mario earns a 1-Up Mushroom. If a coin is depicted, Mario wins 10 coins. If a Star Bit is depicted, Mario earns a single Star Bit. However, if the Bowser emblem shows up, a Goomba appears. There is also Lumalee in Starship Mario found in a Warp Pipe next to the ship's "ear" once certain tasks are complete. This allows Mario to feed 30 Star Bits to the Luma to roll a Chance Cube that can give up to five 1-Up Mushrooms at once.

Later on, there is another cube that allows Mario to roll five for 100 coins for a chance to win up to 25 1-Up Mushrooms. The Chance Cubes on Starship Mario have no sides with a Bowser Emblem or a coin. There is a chance that the player either get a Star Bit, one, three or five 1-Up Mushrooms. The Co-Star Luma can also spin Chance Cubes. Rolling into one as Rock Mario, burning it with a fireball as Fire Mario, hitting it with a Double Kick, or shooting one with a Star Bit also activates it, as does riding Yoshi and doing a spin attack.

When rolled, the player will hear a snare drum roll, ended by a cymbal crash once it has landed on an image. The longer it takes for the picture to reveal (an example such as when it's rolling down a big hill), the longer the snare drum roll sound will be, and later the cymbal crash is heard. But the faster it reveals, the shorter the sound, and the sooner the cymbal crash sound is heard. Sometimes a few snare drum beats can be heard when spinning multiple chance cubes, during the drum roll sound.